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Police accused over Musindo rape case

Zim Standard

By Foster Dongozi

THIRTY-FIVE women's organisations have
threatened to demonstrate against the police over their alleged reluctance
to arrest Zanu PF supporter and leader of the Destiny for Africa Network,
Obadiah Musindo.

Musindo mingled with Zanu PF heavyweights
and ministers at the burial of national hero, senior assistant police
commissioner Winston Changara on Friday.

Musindo also
recently donated $130 million towards President Robert Mugabe's birthday
bash held in Mutare.

Musindo, who calls himself a reverend,
is alleged to have raped his maid five times and photographed her private
parts.

A statement by Women's Coalition, the umbrella
organisation for all women and children's organisations leading the
complaints, said: "The Women's Coalition is shocked that after the Attorney
General declared that Obadiah Musindo has a case to answer, he has not been
arrested. Failure to arrest Mr Musindo to answer to the charges of rape will
leave us no choice but to march in protest. We deserve protection and
justice against gender-based violence as citizens of this
country."

Attorney General, Sobusa Gula Ndebele referred The
Standard to the Director of Public Prosecutions Loice Moyo, who was not
immediately reachable.

"The Women's Coalition is worried
that a number of cases that concern sexual abuse of minors by high profile
men are not brought before the courts."

Women's affairs
minister, Oppah Muchinguri, said she could not comment on the Musindo issue.
"I am uncomfortable discussing that issue as it is going through the legal
process," she said.

Two weeks ago she castigated what she
described as a "lenient" sentence against an alleged serial
rapist.

A former permanent secretary seduced a
15-year-old-girl resulting in pregnancy but he has not been charged for
statutory rape.

A deputy minister from Masvingo and a very
senior chief have also made young girls pregnant, while a permanent
secretary has impregnated several young girls in Mashonaland
East.

They have been allowed to go scot-free because they are
senior Zanu PF officials.

Meanwhile, the government and
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions are headed for a showdown over the
issue of sanitary ware.

The government appears annoyed that
the ZCTU sourced truckloads of sanitary towels from abroad for use by
unemployed and poor women.

Although the government refused to
waive duty, the ZCTU, looked for US$7 000 ($700 million) to pay the duty for
the sanitary pads.

There are reports that women have been
using soft tree fibre, newspapers and rags for sanitary purposes because
they could not afford the sanitary towels.

Muchinguri
said following the publication of a story in The Standard about the plight
of women, the government had visited several companies that manufacture
sanitary pads to establish their capacities.

Companies that
were said to be manufacturing sanitary ware were wheeled out and paraded
before the Press and invited guests.

"People should desist
from using women as guinea pigs to further their political clout. The
products prices are quite reasonable and for ZCTU to masquerade as the
saviours of Zimbabwean women in terms of providing sanitary ware is rather
worrying and misleading."duty for the sanitary pads.

There
are reports that women have been using soft tree fibre, newspapers and rags
for sanitary purposes because they can not afford the sanitary
towels.

Muchinguri said following the publication of a story
in The Standard about the plight of women, the government had visited
several companies that manufacture sanitary pads to establish their
capacities.

Companies that were said to be manufacturing
sanitary ware were wheeled out and paraded before the Press and invited
guests.

"People should desist from using women as guinea pigs
to further their political clout. The products prices are quite reasonable
and for ZCTU to masquerade as the saviours of Zimbabwean women in terms of
providing sanitary ware is rather worrying and misleading."

'Apartheid' fence rile students

BULAWAYO - THE National University of Science and
Technology (NUST) has erected a security fence in order to bar students who
have not paid new fees from attending lectures.

Disgruntled students say the fence is a throw back to the apartheid era in
pre-democratic South Africa, when blacks were barred from designated
areas.

University authorities have also pitched a huge tent
near the security fence. The tent is used as a banking hall for students
settling their outstanding fees before they can enter the
campus.

Paid up students are issued with new identity cards
that have to be produced upon entering the security
fence.

NUST had given its students until 27 March to settle
the fees, increased to $30 million up from $3 million a
semester.

Student Representative Council (SRC) president,
Beloved Chiweshe, said the SRC was making frantic efforts to contest the
move by the authorities in the courts.

"We are against
the barring of students from entering the campus on the basis that they have
not paid their fees. It is a waste of resources. We will confront that by
going to the courts because we cannot be denied education," Chiweshe
said.

Chiweshe was on Tuesday, with 27 other students, hauled
before a disciplinary hearing for protesting against the new fees and also
"unlawfully and intentionally.demonising and castigating the government and
the Vice Chancellor of NUST".

Contacted for comment, the
Director of Information and Public Relations, Felix Moyo, defended the
"apartheid" fence saying "it is not something new and the tent is designed
to provide a shade for the students."

Moyo said: "In fact, in
other universities world-wide, students swipe their identity cards before
entering the campus. We pitched the tent so that students can be protected
say if there is a blazing sun or if it's raining."

However, the secretary general of the Progressive Teachers' Union of
Zimbabwe, Raymond Majongwe, urged NUST students to "bring down these walls
and cut the fences of injustice".

He said: "It is a violation
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948: Article 26) because it
says that everyone has a right to education. The nature of creating zones as
if we are in the Ian Smith era is a negation of fundamental human rights.
Students must confront that system," Majongwe said.

The
Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Stan Mudenge, told Parliament
last Thursday that tertiary institutions should not deny students access to
universities and colleges on the basis of having failed to settle the newly
introduced tuition fees. His appeal seems to be falling on deaf
ears.

Meanwhile authorities at the Harare Polytechnic
continue to bar students who failed to top up their fees from eating at the
institution's canteens.

Sources at the college last week
said the authorities have however, stopped evicting students that have not
paid up their accommodation fees.

But the college is not
accepting examination fees from students who have not paid up their tuition
fees. Tuition fees were increased from $2.7 million to $14.4 million more
than a month ago.

The suspended students' representative
leader, Stephen Matenga, said: "As student leaders we applaud the
government's temporary reprieve. But there is need for a permanent solution.
Fee increments must be realistic and affordable. It must be sensitive to the
plight of parents who are already languishing in
poverty."

College Principal, Steven Raza, declined to give
details. "I don't want to talk to you people from The Standard because you
just write whatever you want," he said before switching off his mobile
phone.signed to provide a shade for the students".

Moyo
said: "In fact, in other universities world-wide, students swipe their
identity cards before entering the campus. We pitched the tent so that
students can be protected, say if there is a blazing sun or if it's
raining."

However, the secretary general of the
Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe, Raymond Majongwe, urged NUST
students to "bring down these walls and cut the fences of
injustice".

He said: "It is a violation of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (1948: Article 26) because it says that everyone
has a right to education. The nature of creating zones as if we are in the
Ian Smith era is a negation of fundamental human rights. Students must
confront that system," Majongwe said.

The Minister of
Higher and Tertiary Education, Stan Mudenge, told Parliament last Thursday
that tertiary institutions should not deny students access to universities
and colleges on the basis of having failed to settle the newly introduced
tuition fees. His appeal seems to be falling on deaf
ears.

Meanwhile authorities at the Harare Polytechnic
continue to bar students who failed to top up their fees from eating at the
institution's canteens.

Sources at the college last week
said the authorities have however stopped evicting students that have not
paid up their new accommodation fees.

But the college is
not accepting examination fees from students who have not paid their new
tuition fees. Tuition fees were increased from $2.7 million to $14.4 million
more than a month ago.

The suspended students' representative
leader, Stephen Matenga, said: "As student leaders we applaud the
government's temporary reprieve. But there is need for a permanent
solution."

Soldiers, police get marching orders for Changara
funeral

Zim Standard

BY OUR STAFF

JUNIOR ranking
soldiers and police officers in camps in Harare were on Friday commandeered
to the national shrine while stallholders at Mbare Musika were ordered to go
to Stodart Hall to make up numbers at the burial of President Robert
Mugabe's former aide-de-camp ,senior assistant police commissioner Winston
Changara, The Standard can reveal.

Irate soldiers said they
were ordered to leave whatever they were doing and troop to the National
Heroes' Acre.

Some of the soldiers said other officers were
told to go without uniforms so as to create the impression that it was
actually members of the public who had graced the national
event.

"I was preparing to go on an out of town journey, but
we were told to go to Heroes' Acre. I tried to reason with my superiors, but
they said my loyalty to the force would be questioned if I boycott the
burial of a hero," said one junior soldier.

A cursory
glance by The Standard news crew on Friday observed that uniformed officers
from the Zimbabwe National Army, the police and Zimbabwe Prison Services
filled up the terraces at the national shrine. There were very few people in
civilian attire.

However, army spokesperson, Colonel Simon
Tsatsi denied commandeering soldiers to the Heroes' Acre.

"Masoja agara anongoenda ku Heroes'Acre each time panovigwa gamba. We never
followed people at their homes to commandeer them to go to Heroes' Acre. If
they were not on duty then what were they doing at the barracks?" Tsatsi
asked.

Mbare Musika's retail section was shut down around
10AM and was only re-opened later in the afternoon. However, the wholesale
section for farmers was not seriously affected, as it closes at 1130AM
everyday.

Vendors and residents were bitter at the disruption
of their activities. They said they were ordered to close the market or face
the wrath of Chipangano, a notorious Zanu PF militia group based in the
high-density suburb.

"The security officers manning the
gates just told us to pack our things and leave the market for Stodart. When
we asked what was happening, they said they were working on instructions,"
said Rose Chipunza, a stallholder at the retail section of the
market.

At the national shrine, President Mugabe threatened
to ruthlessly crush the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)'s
planned mass demonstrations to oust him.

He said the MDC
leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was digging his own grave if he goes ahead with
the planned mass street protests.

As Mugabe was making the
threats, two police officers collapsed after standing in the sun for hours
before the burial commenced.

His threats came less than a
month after Tsvangirai, who leads the Anti-Senate MDC faction, said he would
lead demonstrations against the 82-year-old leader for running down the
country's economy and committing gross human rights violations.

Villagers face starvation after eating maize
seed

HWANGE - Villagers in
Hwange District, Matabeleland North Province, face starvation because most
of them consumed government-donated maize seed.

The
villagers, desperate for food, ate the maize seed after the rains
failed.

Villagers, government officials, relief agencies and
community leaders told The Standard that a large number of people resorted
to eating maize seed between August last year and February this year after
the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) failed to deliver food
supplies.

"The majority of people used to rely on maize seed
which is preserved with chemicals," said Joseph Change, the village head for
Change area.

"They would boil the seed and mill it before
consuming it.

"We had several cases of people who were
admitted to various clinics and hospitals after they were poisoned by
chemicals," he said.

As a result, he said, most villagers
failed to plant maize and were in urgent need of food aid at a time when the
GMB has failed during the past seven months to deliver grain to areas
desperate for food.

Change said:

"The
situation is worrying as most people are facing starvation. We do not expect
any meaningful harvests in both communal and newly resettled farms as most
people consumed their donated maize seed.

There is urgent
need for government intervention to ensure that our people get
food.

"The majority of people last received maize from the
GMB between May and July last year and this is the reason why they ate maize
seed. We are facing a crisis in this area."

The Senator
for Hwange East, Grace Dube, also confirmed that people consumed maize seed
when they failed to get maize from the GMB and as a result were starving
because few villagers managed to plant crops.

Dube said:
"Villagers used to eat maize seed especially in circumstances when they were
failing to access food supplies from the GMB.

There is
definitely a food crisis here although I am informed that the government may
intervene soon to alleviate the situation by providing
maize."

The maize seed was treated with chemicals such as
Captan, Cruiser and Gaucho which, according to manufacturers, are harmful if
ingested by human beings.

Hwange East villagers - Focal
Constantine Liteta, Anna Kwidini, Regina Zulu and Jennifer Dube -said the
majority of people were surviving on a single meal a day, sourced from
non-governmental organisations.

Liteta said: "The situation
is bad as we cannot make ends meet. We are surviving on meagre food supplies
from non-governmental organisations.

We sometimes get at
least five kilogrammes of maize meal a month and this is not enough to feed
our families that have ballooned due to the AIDS menace.

"Although some primary school children are fed with porridge sourced from
NGOs, their colleagues at secondary schools go to school on empty
stomachs.

They only get one meal a day and this is
distressing for youngsters who have to cope with the demands of school life
while struggling to feed themselves."

A spokesman for one
of the relief agencies said:

"Government and NGOs should come
together to make a thorough assessment of the food situation in this region
in order to ensure that people get food supplies.

This
issue needs a collective approach as we are facing a food disaster in Hwange
East."

The food crisis in Zimbabwe has been largely blamed on
the government's skewed land reform and insufficient rains during the past
five years.

Politics bury mortuary projec

Zim Standard

t By our
correspondent

GWERU - A committee set up to raise funds for
the rehabilitation and expansion of Gweru Provincial Hospital mortuary has
failed to start work after Zanu PF officials objected to its composition,
The Standard has learnt.

The Midlands Governor Cephas
Msipa, who was involved in setting up the committee, decided that it was
prudent to co-opt Gweru mayor, Sesel Zvidzayi, as chairperson of the
fund-raising committee, The Standard understands.

However, some ruling party provincial officials, keen to portray the project
seen as a Zanu PF initiative, decided it was improper to have a Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) member heading the committee. Zvidzayi belongs to
Morgan Tsvangirai's faction of the MDC.

A government official
speaking on condition he was not identified, said following the objections
by Zanu PF officials, the MDC mayor was then made the deputy chairperson of
the committee while Gweru businessperson, Enos Size was appointed the
chairperson of the committee.

However, the committee is still
to meet.

Asked for comment, the Midlands provincial medical
director, Anderson Chimusoro, referred all questions to the Midlands
governor who was not immediately available for comment
yesterday.

However, Zvidzayi told The Standard that he was
willing to direct all his energies to the project despite disagreements over
his involvement.

"Unfortunately I cannot say much
regarding the committee but I want to emphasise that I am ready and willing
to work for the improvement of the mortuary and on anything else that
benefits our residents," Zvidzayi said.

The Gweru
provincial hospital mortuary has a capacity of 24 bodies but has over 60
bodies at any given time.

Power cuts worsen Zimbabwe's woes

Zim Standard

BY
VALENTINE MAPONGA

MASVINGO - Massive power outages that are
currently being experienced in the country have reduced most urban families
to living an almost rural life and the residents are slowly adapting to the
situation.

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)
early this year announced that they were reintroducing power cuts in cities
and towns lasting several hours on end because of an acute shortage of
electricity.

Everyday, it has become normal to see women and
children from Harare's high-density suburbs carrying firewood from
neighbouring farms.

"There is nothing we can do. We just have
to use firewood," said Sarah Makamba of Glen Norah. "Electricity is cut on a
daily basis and that does not stop us from getting hungry. We still have to
cook and eat, the living standards are always deteriorating,"she
said.

Paraffin, which has always been a ready substitute
source of energy, is also not available as the country grapples with a
serious fuel crisis.

Because of the regular power
outages, some residents complain that they have had to throw away meat from
their refrigerators which had gone bad after power cuts on several
occasions over the past few months.

"Although because of
rising prices, it makes sense to buy food in bulk," said one Greendale
resident, "It is now extremely difficult because it will go bad as most of
the time there is no electricity.

"These days you cannot
plan," lamented the man.

However, it is not everyone feeling
the pinch, The Standard found.

Well-heeled residents are
buying generators for power generation, in the event there are power
cuts.

They are, however, struggling to keep them running
because of fuel shortages, which have worsened over the past three
years.

Other residents regularly raid
furniture-manufacturing companies to buy sawdust, which they then burn as a
source of energy.

ZESA Holdings, through its subsidiary the
Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZEDC), released a load shedding
schedule for Harare Region customers indicating that they will be without
electricity for up to six hours each week.

"Customers
should treat the mains as being live during load shedding periods as
supplies may be restored before expiry of the peak
period.

Customers should also note that in the event of
severe supply deficiencies more severe load shedding may be warranted and
the above programme may not necessarily be followed," warned ZEDC in a
statement

ZESA Holdings loss control manager, Philip Mhike,
last week revealed that the company was losing about $5 billion a week due
to vandalism and theft.

"We have acquired a lot of
equipment from China meant for connecting new clients but we have failed to
do so because we have to replace vandalised areas," Mhike
said.

He was speaking in Norton after the police had arrested
seven people accused of stealing aluminium conductors. The thieves use the
conductors to make aluminium pots for export.

Zimbabwe
imports 40% of its power requirements from South Africa's Eskom,
Mozambique's HCB and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)'s
Snel.

Electricity is only one item on a long list of key
commodities in critically short supply as the country grapples its worst
ever economic crisis.

Food, fuel, essential medical
drugs, chemicals to treat drinking water for urban residents and nearly
every other basic survival commodity is in short supply because there is no
hard cash to pay foreign suppliers.

Mutare commissioner quits over pending criminal
case

Zim Standard

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUTARE - Esau
Mupfumi, the Zanu PF central committee member and transport tycoon, who fell
victim to the government's anti-corruption crusade, has resigned from the
commission appointed by the government to run the eastern border
city.

In a letter to the Minister of Local Government, Public
Works and Urban Development, Ignatious Chombo, Mupfumi said he had resigned
from the commission because he has a pending criminal case against
him.

He is alleged to have defrauded the National Oil Company
of Zimbabwe (Noczim) of 15 000 litres of diesel.

The
businessman was remanded in custody to next month when he appeared before a
regional magistrate, Hosia Mujaya last week.

Two other top
Zanu PF officials from the city have also fallen prey to the anti-corruption
blitz.

Mupfumi said it was immoral for him to remain in
public office while still facing criminal charges.

Mupfumi was appointed in January as deputy chairman responsible for
finance.

He said the decision to resign from the commission
should not be misconstrued to mean that he was guilty of the charges he was
facing but merely wanted to be excused until the case has been
finalised.

The Standard saw a copy of the resignation
letter.

There was no immediate comment from Chombo but an
official from the office of the Manicaland provincial governor
confirmed

Mupfumi's resignation which he said had been
accepted.

Mupfumi's resignation letter was also copied to
Tinaye Chigudu, the provincial governor.

"Yes I can
confirm that Mupfumi has resigned and we have accepted his decision which
was very personal," said the senior official from the governor's
office.

The latest development further throws the commission
into disarray after Chombo abruptly dismissed new commissioners he had
appointed three days earlier and demoted the commission chairman, Kenneth
Saruchera, to being a deputy responsible for public works.

Rentals sky rocket in Byo

Zim Standard

BY OUR
STAFF

BULAWAYO - Accommodation rentals in Bulawayo have this
month shot up by more than 233% following an increase in tariff rates by the
Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZEDC), a subsidiary of the
Zimbabwe Electricity Power Authority (ZESA).

ZEDC
increased its tariff rates by 450% to be effected quarterly this year in a
bid to cover its operational costs running into trillions of
dollars.

ZEDC is this month expected to increase
electricity charges by 95%. Other increases will be effected in June,
September and December.

As a result of the tariff increases,
rentals in Bulawayo's high-density areas have shot up by between $2 million
and $3 million a room up from about between $600 000 and $800
000.

In the low-density suburbs, estate agents say they have
increased their rentals to between $15 and $40 million. Property owners were
charging tenants rents ranging from $10 to $30 million a month before this
month's increases.

However, the rentals are expected to
go up again soon as local authorities have been given the green light by the
Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development, Ignatious
Chombo, to charge market rates in a bid to effectively provide essential
services.

Bulawayo Residents Association chairman, Winos
Dube, said the rent increases were symptoms of an ailing
economy.

"This really expresses the difficult economic
situation in the country and we sympathise with everyone.

This is a serious national crisis and we can only plead with the higher
authorities to solve the crisis as the majority of workers are really
suffering," Dube said.

The increase in rentals come at a
time when workers are grappling with transport costs which now run into
millions of dollars every month following hikes in commuter fares coupled
with the ever-rising prices of basic commodities.

The
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) says a family now needs close to $28
million a month to cater for its needs.

There are concerns
that the ZEDC would still incur huge loses running into trillions of dollars
since the tariff increases are regarded as low because the parastatal is
saddled with huge debts.

ZEDC is facing viability problems, a
situation that has seen the organisation failing to purchase critical
equipment and spare parts.

US envoy explains Mugabe travel sanctions
busting

Zim Standard

By DAVISON MARUZIVA

ZIMBABWEAN
government ministers and ruling party officials on the US sanctions travel
list have been able to exploit international conventions to travel to
Washington and New York regularly, The Standard can
reveal.

In a recent interview, the US Ambassador to
Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, said while individuals on the sanctions are not
allowed to travel to the US for personal reasons, under what are known as
host country treaties, or host country memorandum, a government which hosts
an international organisation on its territory such as the United Nations in
New York or the International Monetary Fund in Washington is obliged to
allow individuals and government officials from other member countries to
travel to the US for official business with those institutions regardless of
the state of political relations between the US and that
country.

"So, for example," explained Ambassador Dell, "Fidel
Castro in the past regularly attended the UN General Assembly much as
President Robert Mugabe regularly attends the UN General
Assembly.

Even though we would not give either of those
individuals a visa for personal travel, we are obligated to do so as the
host country of the United Nations."

The Minister of
Finance Dr Herbert Murerwa and the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Gideon
Gono, were in Washington last month for IMF Board meetings even though both
appear on the US travel sanctions list for undermining democratic processes
in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe has exploited the same loophole in both
the US and European Union travel sanctions to attend United Nations
conferences in New York and the Food and Agriculture Organisation meetings
in Rome, Italy.

Mugabe, his government ministers and ruling
party officials are part of nearly 130 people and 33 entities, their
immediate family members and any other persons assisting them who appear on
the US economic and travel sanctions list.

But Ambassador
Dell said:

"What I can tell you is that there have been
numerous cases in which senior officials and members of their families have
been denied visas.

As a general policy we do not disclose
information about visa issuances or about visa denials.

"While the list of individuals who are subject to financial sanctions is
public, we do not publish the list of people who have been put on travel
restrictions.

Those individuals are however, informed by a
personal letter that they are not welcome to travel to the United
States.

"So what I can tell you is that there have been
numerous cases of ministers, senior party officials and their spouses, who
have been turned down for their request to travel to the United States for
things like family weddings or to travel to attend their children's
graduation at university."

He said that in certain cases the
travel restrictions extended to the children of these and family
members.

"We have recently added to the various lists of
sanctioned individuals.

These have been expanded over
time and in more recent times we have added to that list, the children of
individuals who are on the sanctions list.

"However, as
long as those children are already in the United States, they are not going
to be forced to leave the United States and be deported but should they
leave and re-apply for a new student visa there is likelihood they will not
get that visa."

Government 50 trillion in the red

THE Ministry of Finance is drafting a
$50 trillion supplementary budget after line ministries ran out of funding,
Standardbusiness has learnt.

Finance Permanent Secretary
Willard Manungo denied the development saying while government appreciates
the impact of inflation on ministries' budget, it still expected them to
live within their means.

"We appreciate that that when
inflation goes up, ministries are under pressure. The challenge now is to
get it down but we are saying let us stick to the 2006 Budget," Manungo
said.

But an official from his Ministry said on Friday the
supplementary Budget had been pegged for June and has been under draft since
January. The official said of priority would be "security"
ministries.

"The matter is going through Parliament and the
document has been under draft since January. When drafting began it had been
decided that it would mostly be for security ministries like that of Defence
and Security but the other ministries are broke and have been factored in,"
said the official.

"The thing is the money that was
allocated for the 2006 national Budget was not enough and with inflation
shooting to 782 % it is now another story," he said.

Standardbusiness understands the Ministry of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs had its cheque dishonoured at a local bank last week
causing some embarrassment for the government.

The
Ministry of Finance has been forced to eat its words after inflation
skyrocketed to unforeseen levels. Last year, the government boasted that
there would be no supplementary Budget and had drafted the 2006 Budget when
inflation was forecast to hit an average of 200 % by year-end last
year.

It has since hit 782% and continues to rise because of
pressure driven by food costs. Forecasts are that figures will go down in
the second quarter but analysts believe the decrease will not be significant
because of the increase in money supply growth.

The
inflation pressure has hit line ministries hard and government has also been
forced to increase fees for services, such as passports, as a cost recovery
measure.

"The supplementary Budget is not desirable really
but has forced by the situation. Fees for most ministries have been
increased and there will be periodic reviews to bring them closer to
inflation. When inflation goes up it would be necessary to adjust fees
upwards," the official said. Most ministries reviewed their fees in the last
month to hedge against inflation.

Midzi eats humble pie

Zim Standard

BY OUR
STAFF

MINES and Mining Development Minister, Amos Midzi
might be forced to swallow his words after government announced that there
will be no radical review to the Mines and Minerals Act, Standardbusiness
has established.

Midzi's announcement caused panic among
investors, angered his counterparts in government and is believed to be the
reason why the International Monetary Fund refused to give Zimbabwe
financial assistance.

The proposed amendments, stating that
government would get non-contributory 25 % equity on the promulgation of the
Bill into law and the nationalised stake would be increased to 51 % within
five years, also sparked warnings of closures from the Chamber of
Mines

But government is seeking to sweep the dirt created by
Midzi with President Mugabe reportedly having met Zimplats to assure them
that Mine Minister's proposals would not be carried out.

Presidential spokesperson, George Charamba told Standardbusiness last week
that the contested amendments 'do not exist' but confirmed that there were
discussions at cabinet level that could change ownership in the country's
mining concerns. Charamba said that the changes would cut across all sectors
of industry.

"The referred amendments to the Mining Act do
not exist. There is no Act ... just discussions which have not been approved
by cabinet. The discussions are still at a formative stage. Its an
empowerment programme that will cut across all sectors starting with mining
and what is being discussed is very far from what is being said right now,"
Charamba said.

Midzi's camp could further be threatened after
Charamba added that changes in ownership would be done using a "market
friendly approach".

"It would be wrong that indigenous people
are by-standers with concerns to resources mined in the country.
Indigenisation can be done at three levels, which could be government acting
on behalf of people, people with means buying or Zimbabweans combined to
form consortiums to acquire stakes in foreign owned
concerns.

"What is being done is all in the context of
markets, based on negotiations and understanding and agreements. There will
be a market friendly approach to the empowerment program and there is
nothing for free in a market," he said.

He said the
President had met Zimplats where he assured them that what was happening is
in line "with what is happening in the region.

Hwange gears for expansion

COAL producer Hwange Colliery Company Ltd (HCCL)
says it is expecting a consignment of US$33 million equipment for its
expansion project next month.

The equipment is for the
underground mine (US$20 million), open cast mine (US$10 million) and coal
fines projects (US$3 million).

Godfrey Dzinomwa, HCC MD told
Standardbusiness last week the coal producer had made some payment and was
expecting the equipment by the middle of June. Dzinomwa said the coal
producer was expecting drills from Europe and earthmoving equipment, water
bowsers and haulage trucks from Asia.

He could not be
drawn into revealing the sources of suppliers though sources told
Standarbusiness that the drill would come from a Scandinavian country,
possibly Sweden, and other equipment from China. The drills, earthmoving
equipment will be used for the open cast mine, Dzinomwa
says.

The HCCL boss said a consignment of mining
equipment and a conveyor belt had been ordered for the underground mine
while the coal producer has made a down payment for equipment to be used at
the coal fine spiral plant.

Dzinomwa said the expansion
programme would result in increased output in coke and coal to meet growing
demand. In the financial year ended 31 December 2005, HCCL recorded a
decline in coal exports compared to the previous year. Coal exports at 39
067 tonnes was 60 447 tonnes less than the previous year. However coke
exports for the year at 105 927 tonnes were 40% above the sales achieved in
the previous year.

Dzinomwa said exports to China North
Industries Corporation (NORINCO)'s smelter in the Democratic Republic of
Congo were raking in US$150 000 and the coal miner was optimistic that the
exports revenue would grow to $500 000 by the end of the year. HCCL exports
coke and coal DRC.

In its financial year ended 31 December
2005 results, HCCL recorded a profit after tax of $264.5 billion from $49.9
billion in the previous year.

The mining concern said it
was not declaring dividend citing the need for money to fund the company's
recapitalization programme.

Hyperinflation: Yugoslavia's scary
experience

Zim Standard

By Thayer Watson

UNDER Tito,
Yugoslavia ran a budget deficit that was financed by printing money. This
led to a rate of inflation of 15 to 25 percent per year. After Tito, the
Communist Party pursued progressively more irrational economic
policies.

These policies and the breakup of Yugoslavia
(Yugoslavia now consists of only Serbia and Montenegro) led to heavier
reliance upon printing or otherwise creating money to finance the operation
of the government and the socialist economy. This created
hyperinflation.

By the early 1990s the government used up all
of its own hard currency reserves and proceeded to loot the hard currency
savings of private citizens. It did this by imposing more and more difficult
restrictions on private citizens' access to their hard currency savings in
government banks.

The government operated a network of stores
at which goods were supposed to be available at artificially low prices. In
practice these stores seldom had anything to sell and goods were only
available at free markets where the prices were far above the official
prices that goods were supposed to sell at in government
stores.

All of the government gasoline stations eventually
closed down and gasoline was available only from roadside dealers whose
operation consisted of a car parked with a plastic can of gasoline sitting
on the hood. The market price was the equivalent of US$8 for four litre.
Most car owners gave up driving and relied upon public transportation. But
the Belgrade transit authority (GSP) did not have the funds necessary for
keeping its fleet of 1 200 buses operating. Instead it ran fewer than 500
buses. These buses were overcrowded and the ticket collectors could not get
aboard to collect fares. Thus GSP could not collect fares even though it was
desperately short of funds.

Delivery trucks, ambulances,
fire trucks and garbage trucks were also short of fuel. The government
announced that gasoline would not be sold to farmers for fall harvests and
planting.

Despite the government's desperate printing of
money it still did not have the funds to keep the infrastructure in
operation. Pot holes developed in the streets, elevators stopped
functioning, and construction projects were closed down. The unemployment
rate exceeded 30%.

The government tried to counter the
inflation by imposing price controls. But when inflation continued, the
government price controls made the price producers were getting so
ridiculously low that they simply stopped producing. In October of 1993 the
bakers stopped making bread and Belgrade was without bread for a week. The
slaughter houses refused to sell meat to the State stores and this meant
meat became unvailable for many sectors of the population. Other stores
closed down for inventory rather than sell their goods at the government
mandated prices. When farmers refused to sell to the government at the
artificially low prices the government dictated, government irrationally
used hard currency to buy food from foreign sources rather than remove the
price controls. The Ministry of Agriculture also risked creating a famine by
selling farmers only 30% of the fuel they needed for planting and
harvesting.

Later the government tried to curb inflation by
requiring stores to file paperwork every time they raised a price. This
meant that many store employees had to devote their time to filling out
these government forms. Instead of curbing inflation this policy actually
increased inflation because the stores tended to increase prices by larger
increments so they would not have file forms for another price increase so
soon.

In October of 1993 they created a new currency unit.
One new dinar was worth one million of the "old" dinars. In effect, the
government simply removed six zeroes from the paper money. This, of course,
did not stop the inflation.

In November of 1993 the
government postponed turning on the heat in the State apartment buildings in
which most of the population lived. The residents reacted to this by using
electrical space heaters which were inefficient and overloaded the
electrical system. The government power company then had to order blackouts
to conserve electricity.

In a large psychiatric hospital 87
patients died in November of 1994. The hospital had no heat, there was no
food or medicine and the patients were wandering around
naked.

Between 1 October , 1993 and 24 January, 1995 prices
increased by 5 quadrillion percent. This number is a 5 with 15 zeroes after
it. The social structure began to collapse. Thieves robbed hospitals and
clinics of scarce pharmaceuticals and then sold them in front of the same
places they robbed. The railway workers went on strike and closed down
Yugoslavia's rail system.

The government set the
level of pensions. The pensions were to be paid at the post office but the
government did not give the post offices enough funds to pay these pensions.
The pensioners lined up in long queues outside the post office. When the
post office ran out of State funds to pay the pensions the employees would
pay the next pensioner in line whatever money they received when someone
came in to mail a letter or package. With inflation being what it was, the
value of the pension would decrease drastically if the pensioners went home
and came back the next day. So they waited in line knowing that the value of
their pension payment was decreasing with each minute they had to
wait.

Many Yugoslavian businesses refused to take the
Yugoslavian currency, and the German Deutsche Mark effectively became the
currency of Yugoslavia. But government organizations, government employees
and pensioners still got paid in Yugoslavian dinars so there was still an
active exchange in dinars. On November 12, 1993 the exchange rate was 1 DM =
1 million new dinars. Thirteen days later the exchange rate was 1 DM = 6.5
million new dinars and by the end of November it was 1 DM = 37 million new
dinars.

At the beginning of December the bus workers went
on strike because their pay for two weeks was equivalent to only 4 DM when
it cost a family of four 230 DM per month to live. By December 11th the
exchange rate was 1 DM = 800 million and on December 15th it was 1 DM = 3.7
billion new dinars. The average daily rate of inflation was nearly 100
percent. When farmers selling in the free markets refused to sell food for
Yugoslavian dinars the government closed down the free markets. On December
29 the exchange rate was 1 DM = 950 billion new dinars.

About this time there occurred a tragic incident. As usual, pensioners were
waiting in line. Someone passed by the line carrying bags of groceries from
the free market. Two pensioners got so upset at their situation and the
sight of someone else with groceries that they had heart attacks and died
right there.

At the end of December the exchange rate was 1
DM = 3 trillion dinars and on January 4, 1994 it was 1 DM = 6 trillion
dinars. On January 6th the government declared that the German Deutsche was
an official currency of Yugoslavia. About this time the government announced
a NEW "new" Dinar which was equal to 1 billion of the old "new" dinars. This
meant that the exchange rate was 1 DM = 6,000 new new Dinars. By January 11
the exchange rate had reached a level of 1 DM = 80,000 new new Dinars. On
January 13th the rate was 1 DM = 700,000 new new Dinars and six days later
it was 1 DM = 10 million new new Dinars.

The telephone
bills for the government operated phone system were collected by the
postmen. People postponed paying these bills as much as possible and
inflation reduced their real value to next to nothing. One postman found
that after trying to collect on 780 phone bills he got nothing so the next
day he stayed home and paid all of the phone bills himself for the
equivalent of a few American pennies.

Here is another
illustration of the irrationality of the government's policies: James Lyon,
a journalist, made twenty hours of international telephone calls from
Belgrade in December of 1993. The bill for these calls was 1000 new new
dinars and it arrived on January 11th. At the exchange rate for January 11th
of 1 DM = 150,000 dinars it would have cost less than one German pfennig to
pay the bill. But the bill was not due until January 17th and by that time
the exchange rate reached 1 DM = 30 million dinars. Yet the free market
value of those twenty hours of international telephone calls was about
$5,000. So despite being strapped for hard currency, the government gave
James Lyon $5,000 worth of phone calls essentially for
nothing.

It was against the law to refuse to accept personal
checks. Some people wrote personal checks knowing that in the few days it
took for the checks to clear, inflation would wipe out as much as 90 percent
of the cost of covering those checks.

On January 24, 1994
the government introduced the "super" Dinar equal to 10 million of the new
new Dinars. The Yugoslav government's official position was that the
hyperinflation occurred "because of the unjustly implemented sanctions
against the Serbian people and state."

Winter wheat crop fund,
another scandal

Zim Standard

Comment

The government never learns. Two months ago
it moved to stop supply of fuel to A2 farmers because of rampant abuse as
the commodity was diverted to the parallel market instead of agricultural
activities.

Last week in an about-turn, it announced a $3.25
trillion package for this year's winter wheat crop.

This
is the problem of the government being an interested party.

The nation is being persuaded to believe that beneficiaries of this new
package are not the same people who diverted the subsidised fuel meant for
farm production to the parallel market.

In fact, the people
responsible for the current food shortages are being
rewarded!

The reason why the government lacks resolve is
because ministers and government officials are the main beneficiaries of its
handouts.

They will now be lining up to abuse the latest
facility for winter wheat production.

Ever the masters at
cunning, the scheme is being presented as critical because Zimbabwe faces a
shortfall in wheat production while planting of the crop is
imminent.

The idea is to thwart any attempt at criticising
the decision.

This is deliberate.

If the
government has only just realised that winter wheat planting is a few weeks
away, then we are in big trouble.

It simply proves that for
the past six years they have learnt absolutely nothing about planning and
the country will be forced to go onto the international market to buy wheat,
when it does not have the foreign exchange to do so.

There will be bread shortages.

We have had too much of this
management by crisis.

Zimbabwe has in recent years lurched
from one agricultural production crisis to another with no end in
sight.

Last year the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on
Agriculture presented its findings, following countrywide
consultations.

State repression: students bear the
brunt

Zim Standard

sundayopinion By Masimba Nyamanhindi

STUDENTS play crucial and decisive roles in the political and socio-economic
issues in their respective societies.

This is especially so
because institutions of higher learning provide a platform for students to
form competent organised centres of opinion, which opinions normally reflect
the state of affairs of a given society.

In societies
that experience political, social and economic injustices, more often than
not, students have been at the forefront of demanding social, economic and
political justice.

History shows that students have indeed
lived up to their billing - voice of the voiceless - and have acted as
catalysts for change.

Zimbabwe is no
different.

The Zimbabwean society has always been beset by
morally incompetent leadership that uses coercion as a form of
governance.

Before independence, Zimbabwe was a country
bedevilled by political and economic injustices where all forms of racial
discrimination were operational.

But students did not
just watch when the country was burning; they echoed the demands of a
downtrodden nation, that is, restoration of people's fundamental liberties
and freedoms.

Many a times, the consequences of their actions
were fatal, often leaving in their wake a trail of dead or injured student
activists.

Some were expelled. Zimbabweans recall the
expulsion of the late Witness Mangwende, Simba Makoni and the late prolific
writer Dambudzo Marechera after leading the famous "pots and pans"
demonstration.

As Zimbabweans were imbued with the euphoria
of independence, signs that Zimbabwe would be a failed nation were becoming
apparent.

Soon after independence, the country got embroiled
in a bloody civil war that claimed the lives of scores of thousands of
innocent civilians in the Matabeleland and the Midlands
region.

This was genocide in which more than 20 000
civilians perished in that dark era of Zimbabwean
history.

Unfortunately, students and Zimbabweans from the
other side of the road were silent at a time when an inferno was engulfing
Matabeleland and the Midlands.

Be that as it may, when it
was becoming increasingly clear that the political leadership in Zimbabwe
was driven by selfish agendas more than anything else, students in Zimbabwe
broke their silence.

They were at the forefront of speaking
out against corruption, a cancerous canker that has continued to eat into
the social fabric of the Zimbabwean society.

Since that
time corruption has remained deeply endemic within Zimbabwe's
society.

Students condemned the high profile Willowgate
Scandal.

As students clamoured for transparency from the
government, journalists and musicians joined in the fray.

Thomas Mukanya Mapfumo, a renowned protest musician released a blockbuster,
titled Corruption - a song that condemned corruption.

Student
leaders who led the sentiments against corruption were brutalised and
suspended.

The then President of the University of Zimbabwe
students' union, Arthur Mutambara, wrote his examinations from the
cells.

He is now trying to lead
Zimbabweans.

The deliberate and systematic attack on the
liberties and freedoms of students' activists in Zimbabwe has continued,
unabated and if left unchecked could be a cocktail for
disaster.

During the last two weeks alone, we have witnessed
the suspension and expulsion of 37 students at the country's institutions of
higher learning.

The University of Zimbabwe has expelled
four student leaders.

The National University of Science and
Technology has suspended 29 student activists and Masvingo Polytechnic has
expelled one student leader.

Since 2000, the Students
Solidarity Trust has documented at least 100 cases of victimisation of
student activists, which include suspensions and
expulsions.

At a time when the education sector is going
through a turbulent crisis, universities and colleges were thrown into
disarray when the government unilaterally increased tuition and
accommodation fees for students.

The increment was so
sudden and exorbitant that it threatens the capacity of ordinary students to
attain tertiary education.

Yet every child has a right to
attain decent education so that they can have the opportunity to earn a
decent living and escape from the vicious clutches of
poverty.

There is now a real danger that the majority of
students will fail to attain tertiary education.

Harare
Polytechnic has turned away thousands of students and NUST has given
students up until next week to pay up the fees or risk being
expelled.

While students en masse are faced with
expulsions, the systematic victimisation of those brave students fighting
the increments has reached alarming and unprecedented
levels.

President Robert Mugabe's regime continues to
outflank the Ian Smith regime in almost every aspect of
oppression.

It seems oppression is the only industry that is
growing in Zimbabwe.

Until all these ills are removed and
true democratic order is restored, Zimbabwe's independence will forever
remain hollow and meaningless

Of heroes and villains

DEATH does indeed diminish us all. The death of
"Murehwa" James Dambaza Chikerema, at a ripe old age of 81, was of course,
inevitable.

Inevitable because death, like the taxman, will
one day pay each and all of us a visit.

What is saddening
about the passing away of such a great Zimbabwean as the late Chikerema, is
that - if everything was equal - there were perhaps very few people who
deserve to lie at the National Heroes' Acre than Murehwa.

This man was a colossus of the liberation struggle.

Some of
us who were toddlers when the townships were burning in the early 1960s
still recall the stories told to us by our fathers and uncles of the heroics
of the likes of James Chikerema, George Nyandoro, Joshua Nkomo, Enos Nkala
and many others.

Ok, if the truth be told, some of the
legendary heroics of people like Chikerema were unfortunately during times
of internecine violence, when black brother attacked black brother because
one "belonged" to Zapu while the other was Zanu.

But
Chikerema - Nkomo et al - had made their names even before they became the
faces of the liberation struggle at a time when being associated with the
struggle for black majority rule was almost a death wish.

The white settler regime in power in the 1960s - led by Ian Douglas Smith
-was vicious.

Its favourite pastime was to hang black
nationalists as some people enjoy swatting houseflies. It took extra
courage to confront the regime.

Chikerema was such a man
and there were even songs sung in the townships of his exploits, and of
course, those of other nationalists such as Nkomo and the late Samuel
Parirenyatwa.

Woody got to know Chikerema more intimately in
the late 1980s.

Chiki, as we called him, and I became part of
tight group of influential Zimbabweans that would gather every night - come
hail or high water - in the late Herbert "HMD" Munangatire's offices at
Lonrho head office to discuss any subject on earth, while copious amounts of
intoxicating liquids (through HMD and Tiny Rowland's largesse)
flowed.

The air in that office would be rich with chatter
and the aromatic fumes of Chiki's pipe, mingled with those of HMD's
expensive cigars (legend is that HMD so loved a particular brand of Cuban
cigars that at one time a messenger used to be flown once a week to collect
them from Johannesburg!).

Inevitably the subject would
turn to the man at State House.

Chiki was closely related to
President Robert Mugabe and they grew up together as youths at Kutama. He
also went to Saint Francis Xavier College, better known as Kutama College,
as did Mugabe, HMD, his late young brother Charles Chikerema and of course,
Woody.

According to Chiki, and he was never one to mince
words, the Chikeremas and Mugabe had a love-hate
relationship.

While the Chikeremas and the Mugabes
participated closely in any rituals associated with their kinship at their
rural Zvimba homes, they (especially James) were vehemently opposed to each
other's politics.

Not a day (or night) would pass without
Chikerema lambasting one government policy after another.

And whenever the subject came as to who deserved to be at the National
Heroes' Acre, Chiki always vowed that he did not want to be buried at the
national shrine because it had been politicised and - in his words - housed
some people with lots of blood on their hands.

If it is
indeed true that the Zanu PF Politburo chose to honour Chikerema's wishes by
not burying him at the National Heroes' Acre and there were no ulterior
motives such as his well-known criticism of Mugabe, then Murehwa finally
scored a blinder against his kin.

But then, when did the
Zanu PF officials ever listen to people's wishes when it concerns who is
buried at the Heroes' Acre?

Didn't we hear that the late
Chief Rekayi Tangwena also expressed similar wishes?

Some
even say even "Umdala Wethu" did not want to be buried at the national
shrine but his final wishes were overruled.

Where-ever he is
buried, history will judge Chikerema on his virtues and his
failures.

His failures might include his ill-fated flirtation
with the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia politics of Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Ian
Smith.

But nothing will obliterate the enormous contribution
to the Zimbabwean struggle that Murehwa made.

And if
that alone was the yardstick used to measure who really deserves to be
buried at the National Heroes' Acre, James Chikerema would lie forever at
the highest hill at the national shrine.

Zimbos
mourn

WOODY was in the Queen's land the other day just to
sample what the international sanctions are denying us, and also wine and
dine with the folks in Harare North.

While local
businessmen here are mourning at the Chinese invasion that has seen Indians
being pushed off from their traditional sections of the city (because the
Chinese are paying outrageous rentals) and companies crying because of the
influx of cheap Chinese products, Zimbos in London are unhappy with the
sudden increase of Eastern Europeans in "their UK".

Some
Zimbabweans Woody met accused the Russians, Latvians, Yugoslavs, Polish and
other Eastern Europeans who have taken advantage of the relaxation of travel
regimes in Europe to invade the United Kingdom, of stealing their menial
jobs.

Many highly educated Zimbabweans who fled Sir Robert's
kingdom to take menial jobs in London bars, hotels, hospitals and homes say
most of their jobs have been stolen by East Europeans who are content with
low pay.

Because many of the East European girls are blonds,
they have automatically taken most of the jobs in the bars - especially
serving at the counter - because they look more inviting than the ordinary
looking Nyamuziwa from Chivi.

Zim Rights Commission: case of too little too
late

Zim Standard

By Webster Zambara

FOR long the human
rights situation in Zimbabwe has been a topical issue. But recent human
rights violations had no precedence other than the deliberately sidelined
issue of the massacre in Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands during the
first decade of independence.

The establishment of the
Zimbabwe Human Commission, though late, could be the only good thing to
happen in the year we are celebrating our Independence Silver Jubilee. I say
so because so much happened in the year April 2005 - April
2006.

Of all the ills we witnessed in the year, the worst is
arguably the highest inflation rate on earth, continual shortages of basic
necessities and foreign currency, a collapsed health delivery system, rising
unemployment and deepening poverty, and our own man-made tsunami, "Operation
Murambatsvina".

Nevertheless, even amid man-made
disasters, God showed his mercy by giving us rains in abundance, but we
could not grow enough to feed ourselves. We are expecting about 700 000
tonnes of grain when we need 1.8million, and we are expecting to sell only
50 million tonnes of tobacco when in 2000 we sold 270
million.

It was therefore no surprise that at the most recent
meeting of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in Banjul,
Gambia in December 2005, the government failed to defend itself as one of
the chief perpetrators of human rights violations on the continent. This is
the background to the recent announcement by Minister Patrick Chinamasa that
the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission is to be instituted,
urgently.

Zimbabwe is a signatory to the United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, among other instruments of the world
body. These include the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
the International Covenant on the Elimination of all forms of Racial
Discrimination, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Continentally, Zimbabwe is a party to the African Charter on Human and
Peoples' Rights, among others.

It is important to note
that the average Zimbabwean has little knowledge of these Charters or of the
human rights their government has pledged to promote and
protect.

here are three basic ways through which the
state's obligation can be put to test. One is that the State gives periodic
reports on the state of human rights in the country. The other one is that
the treaty body periodically carries out missions to promote or investigate
human rights issues, but only with the consent of the host country. The
third one is that complaints can be filed directly by individuals, or groups
of individuals to the bodies concerned. A contextual analysis of our
situation is that the first option, which is supposed to be done through the
office of the Ombudsman, is almost non-existent.

How many
reports have we seen, and how recent are they? In any case, how many people
know where the offices of Beatrice Chanetsa, the current Ombudsman, are
located? In fact, the former governor for Mashonaland West Province's name
comes quicker than hers when she holds a national public
office.

The second one; where investigations are carried out,
quickly reminds us of the recent visits by two UN envoys, Anna Kajumulo
Tibaijuka and Jan Egeland. The rest, as they say, is
history.

t is the third one, where individuals can file
complaints directly to these august bodies that prompted Chinamasa to set up
the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, for the reason earlier stated. The
State media said government's opponents have over the past few years
relentlessly waged a campaign to project Zimbabwe as a violator of human
rights. Civic bodies and Western governments, they argued, orchestrated
these allegations. This is a very familiar argument in Zimbabwe though very
shallow.

Chinamasa, himself a former lawyer for a civic body
in 1974 (the Catholic Justice Commission for the Rhodesia Catholic Bishops'
Conference, now Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace Zimbabwe) should
not establish this very important commission along such thinking. It will
negate the very purpose for its establishment.

In fact,
the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission will derive its strength and relevance
more from what it is not, rather than what it is. It should not be an
institution set up to hoodwink the local and international community into
believing that human rights issues are being adequately dealt with in
Zimbabwe.

It should not be an institution presided by
government appendages whose role will be to please their master. It should
not be a monster put up to harangue NGOs involved in human rights work in
Zimbabwe. I say this because we do not have a tradition of independent
institutions in Zimbabwe.

In South Africa they call them
Chapter 9 institutions, following their Constitution. Such institutions
receive government funding but work totally independent of government
influence when dealing with excesses.

uman rights issues
are serious business because they affect every facet of life - from an HIV
infected person who can't access ARVs, to the university student who can't
raise fees, to the one denied food because she doesn't have a party card, to
the resettled farmer who can't get inputs because she is not well connected,
to the teacher who is earning below the poverty datum line, and to the
millions facing economic hardships because of
unemployment.

I was elated when I heard that the
Commission will have the mandate to receive, investigate and redress any
complaints relating to human rights. I have every reason to, because it is
not so much the hatreds, the fears, and the brutalities, which are the
social evils of our country. It is the ignorance and deliberate denial of
the truth. Even on the rule of law, the argument that "we have the law, and
therefore the law is just" has since reached its use-by
date.

Colleagues in the civil society are already calling for
this commission to be relevant. The commission will start with a huge
backlog if it is to live up to its mandate stated above. Non-governmental
Organisations cannot change the world on their own. They can identify
problems and what needs to be done about them. Governments are the ones who
must make changes. They are the ones who have the power to change laws, and
ensure that they are implemented.

The creation of a just
and peaceful society involves not just bringing to each and every person in
the country his or her social, economic, political and cultural rights but
also of their "right" to expect the government to provide the environment in
which to realise these basic rights. With this in mind, another Zimbabwe is
possible.

Zim Standard Letters

Readiness to embrace democracy still a
challenge IT is my opinion that we have a very serious crisis in
Zimbabwe. And I think its therefore necessary for us to try and determine
what has led us to the situation we find ourselves in and hopefully try to
see what we can do as individuals as well as collectively to get ourselves
out of this crisis.

Over 30 years ago Ian Smith, was
asked at a Press conference why he was not conceding to the demands of the
nationalists who were then waging a war of liberation when what was then
known as qualified or limited franchise was accorded some black people. He
answered: "You people from Europe, romanticise the black people. You do not
know them; we live with them and we know them better. Democracy as an
institution, is foreign to the Africans. It came here with the white people
and we are still in the process of educating the blacks on its merits. And
it is a process which will take some time.

"What they
know, that is the majority of the them, is that a chief is a chief, he does
not have to be voted in or out of power. Now it is not good to give these
people something they do not understand because it can quite easily be
abused by the unscrupulous few at the expense of the vast
majority."

He said something to that effect and I recall
feeling indignant and coming to the conclusion that Smith was saying that
simply as an excuse to justify his desire to cling onto power and protectthe
privileged position whites occupied in Rhodesia.

I was
convinced his observations were typical of a racist who believed his race
superior and blacks inferior. I never tried to examine what he had said
objectively.

I guess then and perhaps even today, Smith's
observations only confirmed what we had been telling each other, that he
despised black people and therefore was an enemy of the blacks who must be
fought.

It never occurred to me that his view deserved a
sober assessment to see whether there was any truth in it. He was an enemy
and everything an enemy says must be false and by extension everything those
who were fighting against Smith said must be true.

It was
against that background that I too threw in my lot and joined the swelling
ranks of the forces that were fighting against the Smith regime. Little did
I know that time would come when I would be forced to recall Smith's
observations and examine them in the light of events unfolding in the
Zimbabwe which is claiming to be celebrating its Silver Jubilee "25 years of
Independence and Democracy".

To what extent has Smith been
proved wrong or correct by Zimbabwe's experience for the past 26 years. That
is the challenge I feel needs to be addressed by all of us in the wake of
the MDC split.

In my opinion the split was over the question
of democracy. The question was or is:

* To what extent is
Morgan Tsvangirai democratic?

* To what extent is the general
membership of MDC democratic?

* To what extent are
Zimbabweans in general democratic?

That is the essence of
issues at the heart of our crisis in Zimbabwe

It is my
opinion that the question of whether or not Smith has been proved right or
wrong in his observation 30 years ago about Africans not being ready to
embrace democracy is still challenging us today just as it did
then.

In my opinion, one of the fundamental aspects of a
democratic culture is to accept that different views must be given a fair
chance to be heard and where it is not clear which view has been embraced by
the majority of the people concerned, then the vote is used to ascertain
that.

The outcome of that vote must be respected and accepted
as the view of the majority whether one likes it or not. The moment one
feels that majority vote on any issue to which instrument of the vote has
had to be resorted to is against the interests of be it a party or a country
or a club is the wrong one and therefore must be rejected or overturned,
unless if objections are being raised with regard to the unfairness of the
process, one must know that he or she is violating one of the fundamental
aspects of democracy.

What does all, this suggest? In my
opinion it clearly demonstrates that we have not yet cultivated in our
social and political outlook sufficiently high levels of a democratic
culture to enable us to immediately sense the danger whenever anyone among
us violates one of the fundamental principles of democracy. We still have
the feudal mentality of generally being afraid to criticise a leader which
mentality autocrats, thrive on.

We have not yet developed
a love for justice, fair play and a love for certain ideas to a point where
we are prepared to die fighting for ideas. We still ask who has said what
and not why he/she has said what has been said and ask even further whether
what has been said is not a violation of an idea we hold
dear.

Broadcasting
used to be an awe-inspiring experience, more so the reading of
news.

Today, however, all stations run by ZBH - ZTV,
Power FM, SFM and Radio Zimbabwe have all been reduced to children's or
juvenile play stations.

The other night a female
presenter was announcing the programme line up just before the main news sat
8PM. This is supposed to be serious business right? - Wrong! She carried on
as if she was about to present
Ezomgido/Mvengemvenge.

Then there is the news. In the
past older people were engaged as news readers - that is on both radio and
television and there is a simple reason for this deliberate
choice.

It is founded on the belief that the viewer or
the listener is much more likely to believe someone who is mature and
carries herself/himself with decorum than a youngster who struggles and
stumbles over lines and over words he/she has difficulties
pronouncing.

I know it is not the politically correct
thing to continue to refer to the past because, it is said, it was "bad",
but the past informs the present and determines the
future.

Dr Rhino Zhuwarara, the executive chair of ZBH
and Susan Makore, ZTV's chief executive officer were media lecturers before
they moved over to ZBH/ZTV while Chris Chivinge, Newsnet's Editor-in-Chief
and his deputy, Tazzen Mandizvidza, know one or two useful things about
running newsrooms.

Yet despite all this knowledge
and having studied/lectured on media organisations they unleash youngsters,
who to all intents and purposes give the impression they do not know what
they are doing or if they do, nobody believes them.

As past media lecturers, Zhuwarara and Makore surely are aware of how to
make news stations more credible.

I am also sure,
somewhere in their lecture notes they taught about the importance of
rehearsals before coming on the screen or going live on
air.

If they do and presumably practise what they only
taught yesterday, how come they don't give a hoot about what happens in
reality?

I wonder, too, whether they take time to
listen to their own programmes and compare them with BBC, CNN, CFI,
Deutschwelle or CBC.

I know they will argue that young
faces attract young viewers and listeners, but that precisely is why there
are programmes that are specifically for the young viewers and
listeners.

What about those who pay for the licences?
Don't they deserve some respect?

Dr Tichaona
Jokonya, the Minister of Information as well as one of his predecessors, Dr
Nathan Shamuyarira, have spoken about undoing the legacy of Professor
Jonathan Moyo.

I wish they could move with speed before
the anniversary of independence and restore some measure of credibility in
State broadcasters.

T
Mhofu

Emerald Hill

Harare

-------

State
media -the pan calls the kettle black SOMETIMES
the State-run media tends to outdo itself in an unparalleled
fashion.

Last week one of the
government-controlled newspapers wrote about "Blair in peerage loan scandal"
and went to town, as they say, on how the British Labour party secured loans
from the rich in return for appointment to the House of Lords, Britain's
second Chamber.

Yet, one could easily
re-write the same story, substituting Zanu PF wherever the Labour party
appears in the text.

Many will recall
President Robert Mugabe's anger at indigenous bankers, when he complained
that the government gave the bankers licences but the said bankers were not
supporting the ruling party.

For example,
The Herald had the following paragraph from the same story on Blair: "If
Britain's Prime Minister is not thinking about stepping down, he should
be."

In the local context, it could read:
"If Zimbabwe's President is not thinking about stepping down, he should be."
This is especially after all the mess he has gotten us
into.

So companies were supported in the
hope that they will fund the ruling party's campaign activities as has been
the case with every affirmative action
initiative.

I wish the State-media could
apply to the government and Zanu PF, the same critical mind it uses when
focusing on the alleged weaknesses and double standards of supposed enemies
of the government.

If the State media
is so adept at identifying shortcomings of others countrys' leadership, it
should do the same with our own leadership - after all charity begins at
home.

Wake
Up

Mbare

Harare

--------- Mutambara, like an unguided
missile MOST people were relieved by Arthur
Mutambara's acceptance speech in which he said his mission was to reunite
the MDC.

Most of us, though, were
wondering how he was going to achieve this by taking sides, and accepting
the presidency of the pro-Senate
group.

Even within the pro-Senate group
itself, Mutambara's decision to accept the post did not go down well with
others, among them Gift Chimanikire who may have been promised the
presidency.

So, from the very beginning,
Mutambara was seen as dividing the
people.

He did acknowledge the MDC
president Morgan Tsvangirai as a hero. He spoke strongly about the need to
forget the past and move forward. But a
week or so later, Mutambara is quoted in the media
saying:

"How do we talk about a regime
which is criminal and violent when you yourself are carrying out violent
acts and violating your own party
rules?

We won't be qualified to fight
Mugabe if we are little Mugabes."

His
statements were obviously directed at
Tsvangirai.

Mutambara has obviously
not had time to do a careful analysis of the situation, and must have relied
on information supplied to him by the pro-Senate
faction.

He obviously has not heard about
the violence committed by members of his faction against members of the
other faction.

In his acceptance
speech Mutambara clearly stated his position on the Senate and other
government institutions.

The hope of many
Zimbabweans was that he would quickly consult with his colleagues, with a
view to persuading them to pull out of Senate, pull out of Parliament and
all other offices obtained through rigged
elections.

However, a few weeks down the
line, Mutambara talks of preparations for
elections.

"Even if we have to fight
elections under the current constitution, we will build an opposition so
strong and formidable that if Mugabe tries to rig elections, it will be
impossible for him to get away with
it."

Some will argue that Mutambara needs
more time to put his house in order before if he hopes to live up to his
acceptance speech.

Benjamin
Chitate

New
Zealand

-------------- Sweden to continue culture
support REFERENCE is made to your article
"Culture Fund corruption: Sweden pulls out" in The Standard newspaper of 19
- 25 March 2006 by John Mokwetsi.

I
appreciate your paper's interest in the developments in Sweden's support to
the culture sector in Zimbabwe. Regrettably the information contained in the
aforementioned article is not
accurate.

All Sweden's support to the
culture sector in Zimbabwe will be channelled through the Zimbabwe Culture
Fund Trust with effect from April
2006.

The termination packages availed to
the five organisations announced recently is in line with this policy. The
five organisations are still eligible on equal terms with other arts
organisations, for Sweden's support through the Zimbabwe Culture
Fund.

Notably, the Zimbabwe Culture Fund
is currently undergoing a restructuring exercise that will see it handle
increased volumes of support to the
sector.

The whole point with the Culture
Fund is to transfer authority, money and decision-making power to the
Zimbabwean cultural workers themselves; so that they take their own
decisions, instead of having donors picking and choosing what they like to
support.

Sten
Rylander

Ambassador

Embassy of
Sweden

Harare

---------- No respect for women who wear
skimpy dresses

I think it is always
interesting to hear the arguments that women put forward for putting on
skimpy clothing.

I for one, do not
begrudge any woman who goes around naked, but I do not respect such a
person.

Why? - because anyone who does
not respect his or her own body is obviously not looking for
respect.

Funny enough, it is other women
who like to sneer at fellow women while most men welcome a woman who
exposes her body.

You can ask any female
to do an experiment and see which members of the public are more likely to
show disapproval, men or women.

Having said that, I always find women who dress elegantly more interesting
to look at.

Their tasteful dressing
invites nothing but respect from men.

A person's character comes out in the way they
dress.

On the other hand, a woman who
dresses scantily is missing something in her mind, and as such, she needs
all the help and sympathy she can
get.

Some might say that because they
came from overseas with lots of money they can dress the way they like, but
are they aware that even in New York indecent dress can have one
arrested?

By dressing provocatively, you
are technically committing an offence, and any man or woman can actually
report you to the police for crimen
injuria.

I believe that those who dress
indecently have no one in their lives to dress for, and end up dressing like
that in public in order to attract the attention they can't get if they
dress normally.

Curiously, those who
dress scantily think people do not have the right to ogle at them! In case
they don't know, ogling is a freedom of expression
too!

Chimedzanemburungwe

Harare

--------

Thanks for
nothing

ON behalf of all Harare
residents, I would like to thank the city of Harare and Zesa for their
excellent services in the past few
weeks.

I am sure that we are getting more
than our fair share of electricity of three to four hours a day and water
that drips out of our taps. This is probably why you have raised your
tariffs accordingly?

Oh and I must
not forget about the ghost refuse trucks that we pay for that come every
week to collect our refuse, but somehow they always seem to leave the
rubbish behind.

Mike
Summer

Harare

----------------

Impeccable
Source

When it comes to news from
Zimbabwe, your paper is an impeccable source for those of us in the
Diaspora.

Please let us also have the
latest in politics in Zimbabwe. We are waiting for democracy in Zimbabwe and
President Robert Mugabe must go. If only we had the courage for a Ukrainian
style-revolution to exorcise the Zimbabwean
demon.

M
Mubaiwa

Cambridge

UK

----

Our grants
embezzle

CAN you believe that students at
Kwekwe Polytechnic are still to receive their grants because the institution
reportedly converted the money to their own use, at a time when students are
facing starvation?

No one will dare
raise his/her head lest they get into big trouble with the
authorities.

Cool
Toad

Kwekwe

-------------------------

-I'm not the
author

THIS letter serves to inform you
that I, Ngonidzashe Chiutsi, am not the author of the letter to the Editor
that appeared in the issue of The Standard of 26 March 2006 and entitled
It's the principal causing confusion at Harare Polytech, which appeared
under my name.

I would appreciate it
if this letter could be published so that my name is
cleared.